A Tale of Two Cowboys
by mvdiva
Summary: An interlude before everything came tumbling down. (S&F) NOW COMPLETE.
1. Default Chapter

"Naked" is the copyright of Avril Lavigne. Cowboy Bebop rights belong to Sunrise, Inc. (I wonder if they'd let me have Spike if I promised to play nice…)

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I wake up in the morning  
Put on my face  
The one that's gonna get me  
Through another day  
Doesn't really matter  
How I feel inside  
'Cause life is like a game sometimes…

Faye poked her head out of her room and glanced quickly both ways down the hall to see if anyone was around. The dark ship confirmed her suspicions that the rest of the crew was either sleeping or gone off somewhere, and she breathed a small sigh of relief. _Finally, I've got the place to myself._ She thought. Wrapping her towel more tightly around her thin frame, she headed down the dark hall to the tiny shower and carefully locked the door behind her. 

            The face in the mirror showed thin lines around her eyes, a reflection of the stress caused by their last bounty in addition to the physical wounds she had sustained. She grinned to herself a little. Maybe her years were beginning to show. She was getting too old for this bounty hunter crap. _Artemia Giden had been on the run after gunning down several innocents and the heir to a powerful family in a failed hotel robbery on Mars. The family of the young man had placed a 500,000 woolong bounty on his murderess' head, along with the warning for all bounty hunters to be extremely careful with the hardened  criminal woman, as the family wanted some justice of their own._

_            She was a tough broad, all right. Intelligent, too.  _Faye rubbed her cheek thoughtfully and sighed, her expression in the mirror almost wistful. _The woman bounty had led Jet and Faye on a chase through a ramshackle district and would have gotten away if not for Spike's quick thinking and faster guns. _

_            In the heat of the fight, Giden had shot out a window above Faye's spot, showering her with shards of glass. The stinging distraction almost caused Faye her life; the bounty would have put a bullet straight through her heart instead of only whizzing past her shoulder if Spike hadn't shoved her out of the way just in time. _

            Later, back on the Bebop after the woman had been subdued and brought to the local ISSP branch for transfer to the family, Spike had brushed off Faye's attempt to thank him for saving her life. She was hurt at his indifference to one of her rare apologies and covered it with several choice words for the stupid lunkhead.

But then you came around me  
The walls just disappeared  
Nothing to surround me  
And keep me from my fears  
I'm unprotected  
See how I've opened up  
Oh, you've made me trust

            Sighing again, Faye hung up her towel and slipped into the shower. Soon the hot water was running its soothing fingers down her back in a steamy massage. This last bounty had set her and Spike at each other like cats scrabbling over territory. They were both too stubborn to pick a plan and stick to it. She paused from scrubbing her hair to slam her palm against the wet wall. 

            That damn fuzzy-haired moron! Even in the most heated parts of their arguing, that lazy devil-may-care look in his eyes had never focused on her. It was almost like he was fighting with her on autopilot while his brain was elsewhere. "Once, just once, I'd like him to focus on me, instead of galloping off to that far place where he can flirt around with that damn Barbie girl, Julia." She murmured to herself. 

            The only reply she got was the water switching from the comforting steamy hot to icy cold, and Faye gasped involuntarily. She quickly rinsed off, and got out of the now-freezing water.

Because I've never felt like this before  
I'm naked  
Around you  
Does it show?  
You see right through me  
And I can't hide  
I'm naked  
Around you  
And it feels so right

As she wiped away the residual steam from the mirror, Faye realized that her bright eyes, once a tool to get whatever she wanted from men, were glazed over with tears. She was doing something she hadn't done in years. She was crying. _Crying? Over him? What has he ever done for you, other than give you  headaches and steal your cigarettes?_ The arguing voice in her head didn't help her feel any better, and she went on crying as she dressed. 

            _Let's be honest here, _her thought voice said quietly._ You love him. He doesn't give a damn about you, but he can always see right through you, no matter what. Yet you're still here, and you don't want to be without him._ Faye sniffled, and rubbed her nose with the back of her hand. Her reflection in the mirror shrugged at her. 

            Spike couldn't love her. He was there for the money and perhaps Jet, but not for her. His damned Julia, queen of the phantom Barbie dolls still haunted him. When he lay on the couch watching TV, Faye always saw his eyes go unfocused, and he was back living whatever violent past life had been his before arriving at the Bebop. 

            Yet for some reason, she was still here, taking all this from him. Living in the shadow of a long-lost lover who was probably dead. The old Faye Valentine would never have stood for this. But Spike got to her. He was the one who had made her simply drop all the layers. Hell, the walls around her were open to just about anything he could throw at her. Maybe that's why it hurt so much when he always looked past her.

I'm trying to remember  
Why I was afraid  
To be myself and let the  
Covers fall away  
I guess I never had someone like you  
To help me, to help me fit  
In my spirit

Even now, there was no reason for him to ever feel the same way about her. _Faye, darling, you're a bitch. And a lazy, complaining one, at that. _ Frowning at the unwelcome thoughts, Faye pushed away from the mirror and sink to gather up her strewn-about clothes. Who cares? Jet and Ed and even Ein had adjusted to her, and she generally got along with them just fine. 

            Why then did Spike make her want to kiss him and curl up in a ball on the floor at the same time? When did she begin to let him get under her skin like that? Half the time she wanted to take out his eyes with her sharp nails, and the rest of the time she ached to caress his face with the same fingers. 

            He made her feel whole somehow. Aside from having no friends, no family, and a relatively unfathomable hospital bill to somehow pay off, she had been fine. Working in a casino has been no problem. She worked her shifts to pay what bills she could, and things were fine. 

            Until him, Faye had never realized just how lonely she was. Every run-in with Spike aboard the Bebop managed to both infuriate and lift her up. But he would never figure it out, would he? That whiny, green-haired mop head would never love her, and although she wasn't worried about endearing herself to the rest of the crew, she couldn't stop the Poker Alice attitude; couldn't let him see her. Faye. Just plain old Faye. 

            Not gambling Faye, not bitch Faye, but the real person inside the yellow slut suit. As she moved to open the bathroom door, Faye glanced one more time at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were now red from crying, but her makeup was all the way in her room. _Better make a quick exit,_ She thought.

            She pulled the door open, and before she could take the first running step towards her room, the tall fuzzy-haired man stood there, fist raised to pound on the door. Faye stared at him, her jaw unconsciously hanging wide open. Spike stared at her, startled to have his "you've-been-in-there-too-long" rant taken away, but even more startled to see her red-rimmed eyes and to not immediately be verbally accosted. 

            Recovering herself, Faye cleared her throat. "Yes?" Spike blinked, and looked at her. Both of his eyes focused on her face, and Faye felt a quiet shiver go down her back. Those mismatched eyes were actually seeing her, for once. "Uh, dinner time." He managed. Faye nodded, fighting down an uncharacteristic blush. "I'll just be a second." She said quietly, and ran for the safety of her room.

I'm so naked around you  
And I can't hide  
You're gonna see right through, baby

Spike, even more confused now, stood in front of the empty bathroom door scratching his head. Had that been Faye in front of him, or someone else? Normally, disturbing her bath time would have earned him entrance into the next round of their ongoing fight. But…nothing? 

            "That girl just gets weirder and weirder." He murmured to himself. Maybe with their latest bounty money, Jet had bought beef to go along with the bell peppers. Spike walked off whistling towards the kitchen. Faye joined them a few minutes later, loud and complaining; no hint of the silent sad person from the bathroom doorway. 

            While gulping down his second steaming helping of bell peppers and beef, Spike caught several of the quick, somehow hurt looks from the purple-haired woman. Her emerald eyes gleamed strangely, reminding him of haunted blue orbs from long ago …he tucked the memory back into the place he reserved for the past, and forked another mouthful of the cooling dinner into his mouth.

 I'm so naked around you  
And I can't hide  
You're gonna see right through, baby…

_Don't cry for me, Cowboy._


	2. Ashes, Ashes

  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own Cowboy Bebop, even though I'd be rich if I did. (Stupid copyright laws. Argh.) Anyway, this is the second chapter to "A Tale of Two Cowboys", titled "Ashes, Ashes." Enjoy.

~*~

It was late. Probably later than she wanted to think about, but Faye was beyond thinking. Her last fight with Spike had put everything into perspective. He didn't love her, didn't hate her. He didn't feel anything for her or Jet. Just his Julia. 

Instead of indulging in a cry fest in her room, Faye managed to find and steal several cans of beer from Jet's secret stash. _Not so secret now, huh?_ Faye giggled to herself drunkenly. She lay, limbs splayed haphazardly over the threadbare orange couch in the Bebop's main room, empty beer cans scattered around her, like an aluminum tornado's aftermath. 

The droning background noise of the vid screen was a pleasant companion to her addled brain. In her state of semi-consciousness, images and sounds from the past few days flitted before her eyes. The gunk-on-a-plate that Jet tried to pass off as dinner, Ein whining at her for chowing down on the last of his food, their last bounty lying dead in the gutter, and Spike's face, angry and red, yelling at her for swiping the last of his cigarettes. 

The last cigarette. She took a long drag from it now, holding the nicotine-laden air in her lungs before exhaling and adding it to the murky haze that hung above her. With a loud slurp, she finished off the beer in her left hand. What was that now, number four? Maybe number five? She didn't know. _And frankly, Scarlet, I don't give a damn!_ Her mental voice added, which sent Faye into another spasm of giggles, resulting in tears running down her face.

Tears that continued long after the humor of the old movie line had expired. Faster and faster images from the past few weeks played before her eyes; each one a different fight with Spike, now spliced together on her mind's film and played in an agonizing loop. 

He didn't love her. Fine, she could handle that. Faye Valentine certainly hadn't survived this long by letting herself fall for anyone. _Especially not fluffy-haired egotistical cowboys._ She sighed, and rolled over, facing the threadbare couch's back. Her stolen cigarette, forgotten, fell from her fingers and burned itself out on the cool metal floor. 

She passed out like that, and dreamed that a lanky green-haired cowboy swept her off to a castle in the clouds. Suddenly she was awake, the dream a quickly fading tendril. How long had she been out? Minutes? Hours? _Why am I awake now?_ She paused, about to raise a hand and rub at her eyes. There, that noise again. A quiet shuffle, as if someone was being careful not to wake her from her alcohol-induced slumber. 

Faye risked turning her head and opening her left eye to a slit. Spike sat on the floor by her feet, using the couch as a backrest. His characteristic slouch was gone, his back ramrod straight as he sat cross-legged staring at the vid screen. A lonely cigarette smoldered between two of his slender fingers, condemned to a short meaningless life that ended in forgotten ashes on the floor. 

For a moment, the flickering images from the vid screen made his face look like a leering gargoyle from one of Earth's ancient castles. Faye eyed him a moment longer, and then pretending to shift in her sleep, turned on her left side to study him easier. Something inside her ached to see him like that-a stone statue of the man she had somehow fallen for. He never moved, barely even blinking as he stared at and probably through the flickering images on the screen. The numerous beers that had landed Faye on this couch in the first place faded from her bloodstream as she watched Spike.

It was as if she wasn't even there. His usual self was gone, replaced by this…thing. Faye wanted to shake him, make him move, make him forget the past that was probably calling to him now. But she couldn't. It was like she was frozen as well, trapped into playing herself off as the drunken sleeper, just so she could see him like this, with no fighting and no anger. His profile was so still that she began to wonder if she was having another drunken dream. Suddenly, his lips moved, shattering the frozen image.

"You can stop looking at me now. I'd suggest you take a picture, because it will be around long after I'm gone." Faye jumped. He hadn't even given so much as a glance to her to see if she was awake. Her lips thinned, and she bit off one of the many angry retorts that came to mind, settling on silence as her reply. 

Determined to go back to sleep, she closed her eyes and tried to forget how close he was. She could practically feel the heat emanating from him by her ankles. _Not a dream._ She reminded herself. Maybe…maybe she could talk to him now. In the night cycle of the Bebop, Faye felt the dark calling to her; making her want to reveal everything to him. Cautiously, she rolled over again.

Spike was leaning, elbows on his knees, and his face in his hands. His fingers were pale and ghostly in the weak light from the vid screen, and they clutched in his hair. He made no sound, but body language conveyed in the simplest terms what Faye would never guessed. Despair. The sag of his shoulders made her heart ache. 

She felt sorry for the subtle jealous verbal jabs she had made at Julia. Every angry word she had ever thrown at Spike now echoed in her heart as she watched him in his silent acknowledgement that the shadows from his past still managed to cast their shadow over his present.

Before she knew it, Faye had sat up, and reached a hand out to his left shoulder. When reflecting on it later, she still wondered if she had meant to comfort him, or to simply shake him. At their contact, Spike twitched, but didn't move. The heat from his shoulder warmed Faye's cold hand. The muscle beneath the rumpled suit rippled, and he suddenly was holding her wrist with his right hand. Faye gasped when she caught sight of his face. 

Lines of tears streaked his tanned skin, leaking from both eyes. Faye briefly considered tugging her hand back, and running for the safety of her room, but his eyes had frozen her to that spot. He didn't say a word as Faye gaped at him. _The cowboy cries?_ She managed to ask herself. The garnet orbs were filled with sorrow, and she felt her own eyes fill with tears in response. God, how she wanted to hold him, and wipe those tears away.

They held that pose, communicating more in that moment than they had in the numerous months of co-existing aboard the Bebop. Spike was the first to break the silence. "Go away." He murmured quietly. Blinking, Faye was unable to process the simple command. She replayed the words in her head several times before she was able to understand it. 

Spike had released her hand, and gone back to staring through the vid screen, pretending he was watching a muted rerun of the same comedy that Faye had giggled at hours ago as she drank beer after mindless beer, trying to forget him. She rolled to a standing position beside the couch, and picked up a few of the beer cans lying haphazardly around her. After tossing them in the nearest can, she glanced back to see if perhaps he had relented.

He sat in exactly the same position, this time with a new cigarette clutched between two fingers, leaving wispy smoke trails to the ceiling. His eyes were glittering reflections of the vid screen, but Faye could still see traces of the tears he had shed. Tears of her own suddenly threatened to overwhelm her again, and she shut the garbage can with a metallic bang. He never moved. _I'll be damned if I let him see me cry._ Faye whirled around, and ran for her room. 

She managed to slam the door before the tears came, and she sank to the floor, sobbing for herself and the man in the next room, who was as cold as the cigarette ashes on the floor. 

RING AROUND THE ROSIE, POCKETS FULL OF POSEY… 


	3. All Fall Down

**Disclaimer:** As always, Cowboy Bebop is the property of Sunrise, Inc. This is the third installment of "A Tale of Two Cowboys". My apologies to anyone who thought my versions of Spike and Faye might be a little out of character. I hope to clear up any inconsistencies with this chapter. And now, without further ado, I present chapter 3: All Fall down. 

All Fall Down 

_(The next morning)_

            Faye hadn't slept well. After Spike's almost casual dismissal hours before, she hadn't closed her eyes in sleep once. The stars shining outside her window had been counted and wished on numerous times over the hours, yet still managed to twinkle merrily from their far-away homes.  Digging in her dresser, Faye found a small pocket mirror after several minutes of muttered curses. Dusting it off, she glanced in it, frowning in spite of herself. It revealed her rumpled clothes, dull hair, and the effects a night of crying had on her face. _No amount of makeup is going to clear this up. _She thought to herself, and managed to smirk a little at her reflection. 

            Unfortunately, the image smirking back at her was a pale imitation of her normal self. Faye's emerald eyes were now bloodshot, and the rest of her face was still blotchy from the countless tears that had fallen. Sighing, she set to work covering up what she could with powder and a fresh coat of lipstick, hoping that a small makeover would do wonders. 

            _No such luck._ The small voice in her head piped up half an hour later. Despite a change of clothes and makeup thick enough to use as a protective shield, Faye still felt like the miserable animal that had come crawling back here hours ago, heartsick and sobbing. She shook her head. Jet and Ed would most likely notice the difference immediately, and start to ask questions, the kind that she didn't even want to think about. 

            And Spike. Would he notice? Faye plopped back down on her mattress. Did it matter, really? He had made it quite clear last night what he thought of her. But his face…it had just about ripped her in two to see him like that. The old Faye Valentine, femme fatale, poker extraordinaire, wouldn't have cared in the least. He was just another pathetic baby, right? Why did her poker face fall so easily around him then? _When did I change?_ Faye asked herself. 

            There was a sudden knock at the door, and she almost jumped to a standing position. "Faye, you going to be in there all day? If you want food, its on now." Jet's low voice rumbled at her. Faye shook her head. Realizing he couldn't see her, she managed a quiet, "I'll be right there." She stood up, rubbing her suddenly sweaty hands on the sides of her shorts. "Are you alright?" Jet's voice inquired from the other side of the door. _He won't be so nice when he realizes just about all of his precious beer supply is gone. _She thought, and that really made her smile. 

            Before she could change her mind, Faye pulled open the door and grinned up at a bewildered-looking Jet Black. "I'm fine." She purred. Jet nodded, and clomped down the hall to the Bebop's pathetic excuse for a kitchen. Faye could hear silverware rattling and the murmur of voices as she slowly made her way down the narrow corridor. As she passed the closed door of Spike's room, an insane hope that he might still be sleeping hit her. She could avoid him the rest of the trip to Venus, and throw herself into the hunt for their next bounty. 

            A nice thought, but it would never work. The Bebop was simply too small to avoid him for long. Maybe she could take off again, this time for good. No more insane bounties that almost always got her killed, and no fuzzy-haired cowboy to send her send her heart spinning into a dozen pieces. All she had to do was-Faye stopped at the entrance to the kitchen. It was almost a family setting, with Ed trying to type, eat and do handstands at the same time while Ein humbly tried to beg for a few scraps of her bacon. Jet stood in front of the tiny stove, idly stirring something greenish in a pan and shaking his head at the girl, and Spike…

            Well, Spike looked about as good as she felt. He sat slightly isolated from the others, wearing only a white t-shirt and pale blue boxer shorts. He poked uncaringly at the egg on his plate as a cigarette sat smoldering in the nearby ashtray. Swallowing hard, Faye forced her feet to carry her into the kitchen before anyone noticed her long pause at the doorway. She became aware that Jet was saying something to her, but in the mental fog that had just rolled in, she was only able to follow his gesture to sit down at the tiny table. 

            As luck would have it, the only chair was directly across from Spike. Faye settled herself in it, hoping her movement hadn't distracted Spike from his contemplation of the yellow egg yolk, which stared up at him unseeing. "Faye-Faye!" She looked up, realizing Ed was poking her sunny face right in front of her, and jerked back a little. "What is it Ed?" She asked, hoping her voice didn't sound as tired as it sounded to her own ears. 

            Ed paused, and then started a long, probably interesting lecture on something about some article in the news talking about cryo-sleep. When she mentioned memory restoration, Faye perked up in spite of herself. She tried to understand Ed's excited chatter around the headache that was forming above her eyes. The young girl was talking about some kind of treatment for patients of cryo-sleep who had lost all, or certain parts of their memories. 

            The only downside was that the treatments were radically expensive; requiring close to half a million woolongs per session. Faye's rising hope was crushed when Ed rattled off the price. _I'm a 70-something bounty hunter with a mile-long hospital bill already._ She thought glumly. Thanking Ed for the information, Faye glanced across the table at Spike. 

            He was looking directly at her, off-color eyes focused on her intently. Somehow during Ed's speech, Jet had set a plate consisting of one egg and two pieces of bacon in front of her, and she began poking at it now, trying to avoid Spike's stare. Why was he looking at her like that, not saying a word? Faye gulped down the small breakfast, and nodded her thanks to Jet, who looked at her oddly from his position beside the stove. 

            Faye Valentine wasn't the kind to say "thank you" to anyone. She also wasn't the kind of person who could resist a good verbal sparring in the morning, especially with a certain fuzzy-haired cowboy. But she pushed back her chair and stood, ignoring the pang that echoed through her as Spike looked back down at his congealing breakfast, and made a fast, yet dignified exit back to the privacy of her room.

            Jet and Ed looked at each other in confusion as Spike pushed aside his mostly untouched plate and stepped away from the table. His normally relaxed long-legged gait extended to make a quick exit, punctuated only by the sounds of his bare feet slapping on the tile. Jet caught Spike's frown before he disappeared from view. 

            Before the ex-cop could take a step towards his departed partner, the little Welsh corgi broke the strange silence, jumping from floor to chair to table with a small bark of joy, and began to eat. He finished a moment later, and licking all crumbs from his mouth, gave a sheepish doggy grin as if to say, "Forget about them. We'll all be okay." Ed broke into bright peals of laughter, but Jet could only shrug in reply as he looked at the empty doorway his partner had just disappeared through. 

                                                                                          IT'S ALL DOWNHILL FROM HERE, COWBOY.


	4. Just a children's rhyme

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Disclaimer: I know it and you know it, but just for the record, here it is again. I don't own Cowboy Bebop or anything pertaining to the series. Even as I'm writing this chapter, I'm still trying to decide which path to take. The gratifying path would be both enjoyable and betraying to the characters, because we all know "Happily Ever After" doesn't end with a "Bang". By the way, sorry for making everyone wait so long. I didn't mean it to be almost two weeks in between updates. Please review.

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Chapter 4: Children's Rhyme

The hallway was dark as Faye stumbled back to her room. By the time she got to the room at the end of the hall, her eyes were watering so hard that she couldn't find the door. 

Coherent thought had left her the second she had identified the emotions behind Spike's gaze at the table. There was pity…and hate. Hate she could deal with. Every bounty she took down had that same look in his or her eyes, usually coupled with desperation. But bounties couldn't see through you like mismatched red/brown eyes could. They couldn't make you want to crumble into a little heap of skin and bones, and bounty eyes never made your heart break into pieces.

It was the pity in his eyes that made her want to muffle her weeping now. Faye could vaguely feel the cold of the metal wall as she slumped against it, her head buried in her hands. 

She stood outside her door like that for an eternity, buried in the cacophonic sound of her heart tearing, ripping inside of her chest. The faraway kitchen once again resumed a steady murmur of sound, and Faye felt the tears slowing. She turned her forehead to the coolness of the wall, and tried to imagine just how much of a fool she had looked to Jet and Ed. 

Even the stupid dog probably knew what was going on. That pity in his eyes made her feel old. It was the way you looked at old people that couldn't help themselves anymore. Spike's pity for her, poor pathetic Faye Valentine, was more than she could bear, because it gave her hope. Hope that he might stop living in the past, and start living for the present. _Yeah, right._ Faye put her hands out to touch the smoothness of the wall to calm herself enough so she could make it to the privacy of her room.

Suddenly her arm was yanked behind her and she unwillingly followed it around. _I almost would have expected he would wear those boxers with little smiley faces on them. _She dazedly thought to herself, and then Spike roughly tilted her head up with a finger. 

Red-rimmed emerald eyes threatening to fill with tears again reluctantly turned upwards to look at the tall man. Spike stared at her for a second, his odd eyes betraying nothing. The finger holding her chin up felt like it was the only thing supporting her. 

Finally she found her voice. "I can hold my head up on my own, thank you." She whispered. _Dammit, even my sarcasm sounds weak now._ Spike dropped his hand to his side and stood there impassively before her. 

Faye swallowed. What did he want her to say? I'm sorry I'm not Julia? I'm sorry that you can't love me because your heart is only big enough for a ghost? What if-

"Nothing happened." He rumbled. Faye blinked. Nothing happened? What did that mean? Of course nothing happened. That's just the way he wanted it. And then Spike was leaning over her, hands planted on both sides of the wall near her head.

Faye was trapped. She tried to squirm from his unwavering gaze, but his hands dropped to her shoulders, and she stopped. Spike was looking into her now. He was seeing directly into her head, into the very depths where she tried to hide. 

Spike dropped his head to her ear. "There is nothing between us. There never was, and there never will be." His warm breath tickled her ear as new tears pricked at her eyes. "I don't love you, Faye. I advise you to get over me."

He drew back and noted the tears, which now trickled down her cheeks. Every word he had said was true, but they left a sour taste in his mouth. "In a few days or weeks I'll be dead." She tensed beneath him, as if to deny the fact. 

"My past has come back to claim me. There's nothing you can do about it." She felt all the fiery resolve within her shrivel until it was nothing left but a husk. If Spike was so bound and determined to go off and be a hero, he would keep going until it killed him. And there would be nothing she could do about it. Nothing. The finality of that word hit her hard enough to stop the tears. 

Faye raised a hand to his left cheek and stroked it lightly. The skin was lightly stubbled, and she forced a little smile onto her face. Surprisingly, Spike closed his eyes and leaned into her caress. He exhaled, and it sounded like a small sob.

His hands relaxed their hard grip on her shoulders. Faye dropped her hand, and Spike opened his eyes. They gleamed with tears like the ones she convinced herself had been part of a dream from the night before. 

"I can't love you, Faye." He whispered harshly. She nodded, biting her lip. He had convinced himself that the other woman was his destiny. Who was she to stand in the way? The pale hand dropped from his cheek, and she looked at him, feeling so unprotected that she had to fight the urge to run. 

And then came the moment that she held to herself weeks later as someone might curl up to a tattered blanket to keep away the cold. Spike's lips were on hers. He had pulled her to him so tightly that she could feel the rapid beat of his heart against her shoulder through the thin t-shirt he wore.

Overcome with surprise, it took Faye a minute to realize what was happening, and then she put her arms around his shoulders. He sobbed against her, a bitter echo of the heartache reflected in his posture the night before.

Spike tasted like stale cigarettes and spice against her mouth, and Faye wondered if there had ever been such a wonderful feeling in the world. They finally broke the kiss to come up for air. The tears on his face were still fresh, but the pity in his eyes had dulled. 

Faye pulled back. _What am I doing?_ She asked herself. Spike stood in front of her in the light t-shirt and boxers, and she wanted him more than anything. He would be her comfort; a shelter against anything bad. But she couldn't ask him for that. Her reflection in his eyes was a curse to the blonde angel in his heart, and Faye felt a lump develop in her throat.

She opened her mouth, hoping something good would come out, but nothing did. Spike only looked at her tiredly. "Don't love me, Faye. Soon I'll be gone, and you'll go on to live the rest of your life." The rumble of his voice jarred something in her, and suddenly a memory overwhelmed her.

…An elegant old house…figuring out the video camera with her friends. Oh, they had laughed so hard that day…the fresh smell in the morning air…pom poms that rustled as she filmed a memory for herself, ten years in the future. The rest of her life had been stolen from her in a space accident years before Spike had even been born. But she had adjusted, picked up a new life. Now her future was walking away.

Faye snapped back to reality; like fast forward on the ancient beta tape from her past, to Spike, but he was gone.

__

WAS IT ALL JUST A MEMORY?


	5. Song that Never Ends

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Disclaimer: Cowboy Bebop and all its characters belong to Sunrise, Inc. and Bandai Entertainment. I'm not making any money off this one; its all for my own amusement and your entertainment. 

Thanks to everyone who stuck with this story. I've been incredibly busy the last two weeks, and just haven't had the time to write. (Yada yada, insert poor excuses here.) This chapter is going to be the end of my story. Le Fin. In the true style of CB, there are going to be some ends left hanging for everyone to ponder. 

****

Chapter 5: Song that Never Ends

Even as the intensity of her sudden memory faded, Faye was running down the hall to the hangar. She had to get away, even if it meant she could never be allowed to return. It was all too much, and she couldn't handle it. She was a gypsy, introduced to Jet and Spike in the Bebop's head as someone who could never be chained up, and now the wanderer in Faye was yelling; screaming for her feet to move, and so all she could do was follow.

Her heart pounding in her chest, and by the time she reached the Redtail, darkness had begun to creep around the edges of her vision. _I'm going to pass out._ She thought to herself. As her legs crumpled beneath her, Faye managed to throw her arms up to protect her head. She landed hard on the metal deck, unconscious.

~

She was cold…so cold. Like a cave person frozen in ice for millennia, and then something warm and soft was being wrapped around her. Background noises floated to the place where she rested peacefully, like the calm water beneath a raging sea. Nothing could touch her or take her away from this blissful paradise.

Almost nothing. She could vaguely sense something tugging; pulling at her and wanting her out of this comfortable place, back to the senseless existence that she had come here to forget.

"Come on Faye, wake up. Wake up, now." She groaned, and made a feeble attempt to swat away the gentle hand that was tapping her left cheek. Jet's worried face stared down at her, and Faye blinked rapidly, trying to wake up the rest of her body.

She sat up slowly, and took in her surroundings. It was her room on the Bebop, and the warm comfort from her dream was a heavy blanket she couldn't recall seeing anywhere before wrapped around her thin shoulders.

"You're lucky I found you when I did." Jet said. Faye turned to look at him. The older man sat on the very edge of her bed, looking at her closely. His intense scrutiny made her flush, and she looked down at her hands, purple hair conveniently covering her face.

"I don't know what's going on with you and Spike, and I know it's not any of my business…" Jet paused, unsure of how to go on. "But you know as well as I do that he's got a lot of skeletons in his closet." Faye nodded. It was definitely an understatement, but she didn't feel like being sarcastic just yet.

"I'm going to leave, Jet." She said quietly, and looked up to meet his eyes. She was determined. Nothing was going to bring her back. There was no one here that wanted her anymore. She was out of luck at last. It was time to go. 

He stared hard at her for a moment, and she felt like a teenager again, trying to convince her father that there would be parents at the next party she went to. Unfortunately, Jet wasn't as gullible as her father had been, but she wasn't a child anymore, and it wasn't his decision to make. 

"If that's what you want." He said simply, and stood up. Without a backward glance, the big man stepped out her door and shut it quietly behind him. On the bed, Faye drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around him.

Lost in thought, she sat that way for hours before packing a few things into her duffel, and making a midnight exit in the Redtail. Faye Valentine wasn't going to come back. 

~

Three days later, she met a blonde angel during a shoot out and delivered a simple message to a man who was little more than an empty shell, and that's when everything ended with a **bang**.

__

WALK ON THROUGH THE STORM...


End file.
